Odaiba + Asakusa

Last week, one of my friends was in Japan for a class trip, and he had a free day and decided to come to Tokyo and see me and a couple of other friends of his. We all got together and spent the day doing a bunch of different things. It was a ton of fun. I was stupid and forgot to take my camera with me, even though I kept making a mental note to be sure to grab it before I went, and I still forgot. I tried to take pictures on my phone, but it didn't really suffice for a lot of it, so I stole some of Shaun's photos.

We did a ton of stuff though. We first met up at Tokyo station, and when I got there, only Shaun and his ex-neighbor in Hawaii Shugo were there. Kyoko, a girl he met in Hawaii as well (lol) arrived a few minutes later. From there we tried to decide where to go, and Kyoko said there was a festival going on in Asakusa, Sanja Matsuri, so we decided to head there, as much as I dislike Asakusa. It wasn't much different from the time before, aside from being more packed. It didn't really feel much like a matsuri, though I think we just went at a low point. It felt more like they were just doing a bit of an attention-grabbing show for all the tourists there to attract more people or something. XD We only saw a couple of floats, but they were fairly small. There were probably more later.




This was some park-like area that was closed off, probably because of the festival. It looked really pretty though.

We walked through the main street, and after looking at a couple of the shops, we tried to find a place to eat. We got just outside of the main area and found an okonomiyaki place. There was a bit of a line to go in, but we decided to wait. About 15 minutes later, the people in front of us went in, and this lady that works there poked her head out and told us that the wait would be 30-40 minutes and that we should go somewhere else, and then shut the door on us. O_o We were like "Uhhh okay?" Glad we were given the choice to wait? That was really strange. Talk about being rude. She said it to the two Japanese, not to Shaun and I, so I don't think it was a racist thing, but...okay. We headed off to find a different place to eat. Eventually we came upon another okonomiyaki place and decided to eat there (since we were, you know, allowed in). We ended up ordering four things and splitting it between everyone, which I HATE doing since it somehow leaves everyone hungry, and this definitely did. I originally ordered yakisoba thinking we were all ordering our own thing, but then they started sharing theirs and the yakisoba was split up too, so no one got full. D: Although I think they didn't give us much to begin with. Expensive place too. Shaun was awesome and said he would treat everyone to the meal since we had all traveled to see him (which makes no sense since he traveled all the way from Kyoto, but he insisted), so that was nice.

After we left that place, we decided to go somewhere else. It came down to Shibuya and Odaiba, and I was like "OMFG ODAIBA LET'S GO" since Miho had told me about how fun it was and I really wanted to go to the Fuji TV place. So we went there. I didn't realize it was such a trip. @_@ We had to take a couple of different train systems to get there, one of which was like 300-something yen for like 3-4 stops, yeesh. That particular ride was really fun though, as we were basically on a monorail and went through the city and went through Rainbow Bridge (like, we were inside of the part right underneath the road). It was really cool.


I took a bunch of pictures of the ride, but since I'm lazy, I'm only uploading this one. It's Ginza.

When we arrived, we decided to head to Fuji TV first. We got there around 5:45 or so (we were at that restaurant for a long time), and the main stuff closes at 6, and even though we were still there before 6, they weren't letting people go in. D< That was so ghei. We went up to the next floor to check out the merch shop, which of course was still open since they make money there. They had a bunch of cute plushies and stuff of the various Fuji TV mascots, like the blood type animals that they have every morning with the news. xD Since we couldn't do anything else there, we went to another area.


Fuji TV! It looks like a space port.


Inside the tunnel, going up to the gift shop. Kyoko in the foreground, Shaun in the background.


Shaun's picture. Shugo in the foreground with me attempting (and failing) to cover my face.


This is just outside of Fuji TV, but yeah, a small Statue of Liberty. Ooookay Japan.


Rainbow Bridge.


Rainbow Brudge again with Tokyo Tower in the background. It's really hard to see, but it's that little dark line right in the middle. I just thought this scene was very...Tokyo. Like if I were to take a picture that I thought would be THE picture to represent Tokyo, it would be this one, with Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge, and the city all in one shot.

There's a shopping building in Odaiba that's sooo awesome! It's just really neat. Only pictures can really explain, but they had just a bunch of stuff everywhere. One area was like a mini food court (if you can even call it that), and the tables and chairs were all school desks. They had a chalk board on the wall that was written on like when the students draw on it for fun. It was so cute. There were just places like that all throughout the building.


Blurry picture is unfortunately blurry, but hopefully you can see how festive the place looked.


There was this painting on the wall with an antique children's bike in front of it, I guess it was supposed to look nostalgic. XD But the painting was neat.



The awesome place that had the school desks for tables.


Shaun wanted to get a picture of us pretending to be sleeping in class. This would have been a much better photo if it had been taken higher so you could see Shugo sleeping while sitting up, haha, but it's still cute.

After we left there, we decided to go to the Ferris wheel nearby. I found out as we arrived that that's where Zepp Tokyo is, lol. >_> *remembering for future reference* We decided to take a ride on the Ferris wheel, and this time Shugo decided to buy tickets for all of us, so again, got out of paying, whoo~! xD That was really nice of him. It was 3000 yen for the 4 of us, and we got tickets for the line that lets you ride in the cars that are clear (versus the typical colored ones that only have windows at like waist level). Granted, the wait is longer since they only have a few of those, but it was neat. You could see through the floor, lol. By the time we were in it, it was dark, so we could see the city lit up. It was so cool. Definitely worth the wait. Dare I say that it might even be a better view than Tokyo Tower? Can't say 'til I go, but it was a great view. I know Shaun got lots of pictures then (I took a lot of them lol), so I'll have plenty to show. :3 The ride itself was...I'm not entirely sure. I want to say like 20 minutes? Maybe longer. It was a pretty big wheel.


Shaun and Shugo posing in front of the wheel. Taken on the way there.


Getting closer.


Almost there!


I was (pleasantly) surprised to find this! If there's ever a concert I want to go to that's being held there, I now know where to find it.


On the ferris wheel.



The city looks so awesome lit up at night! You can see Tokyo Tower lit up in the background.

After the ride, we went into the building next to it to take purikura. Sadly, the machine didn't have an option to mail the pictures to our phones, so I can't show you them, but they were great. I love doing stupid poses and silly backgrounds and whatnot. There was one frame that was basically a tray with two sushi on it with small face holes, and Shaun made this "O_O" face in it. xDDD It was great. Since I was one of the people to edit the photos, I had a ton of fun. There were Hard Gay stamps, like a stamp of glasses and the hat, and another with a small body doing the "FOOOO" pose. So since Shaun had talked about the HG clip where he invites himself to some girls' purikura session, I totally put the HG set on him. XDDD Amazing.


YES.

Since it was getting late and we needed to leave so Shaun wouldn't miss the last Shinkansen back to Osaka, we started heading back. They had to go in the direction to Shinkiba though, which is the opposite of me, so I just took the Rinkai line straight back to Omiya. We had good timing with the trains, as there was a rapid for my route as soon as we got there.

That was basically it. It would have been great if Fuji TV had been open longer, but alas, I'll just have to go back. At least I'll have another chance to bring my camera, derp.

Tea Ceremony

Wednesday, I went with my host mom to visit a friend of hers, who does tea ceremony. The lady (I don't know her name) offered to do a ceremony for us, so when we finally had free time together, we went around 2PM.

Unfortunately I don't really know how to explain anything. It's basically just something you watch and learn. Hopefully the pictures will suffice? XD


I think this is the lady's daughter. She did the entire thing, really.


Finally, my host mom! She is so hard to get a picture of. She must not have known I took this.


The sweets we were served. They were delicious.


After the initial ceremony, they had me make a bowl of tea. I hope it was good, lol.





Next, they had the granddaughter, Tomoko, wash the bowl.


Lastly, we took a couple of group shots.


With some pushing we got my host mom to take a picture. Finally proof she exists. :P

Wow, a short post! It doesn't feel right.

Golden Week - pt. 2

Monday

Luckily the trains on that route start at Wakayama station, so I easily got a seat.

I just felt like taking this.

I took pictures along the way of stuff I remember seeing every day. It's really pointless stuff, but I like to take pictures of the things I see on a daily basis. I'm weird like that.




Okay, these aren't exactly significant, but I was compelled to take photos of the farmland to show just how rural Wakayama is. Also, the farms are tiny in comparison to the States, so I thought it might be interesting.


I also took a picture of the inside of the train. Why? Because they are WAY AWESOMER than trains in Tokyo in the fact that all rapids (save for the rare local that gets used as a rapid) have this kind of seating, and they have more window space. It's just way more comfy. Also, I took this train to school every day, so again, memories.


This was just another shot of the inaka really, but I actually managed to capture a shot of an intersection. Instead of using stop signs, they have these bubble mirrors so you can see cars coming from the different angles. They also have "stop" written on the roads if you actually have to stop, but otherwise, just these bubble mirrors.


This was one of the things I saw all the time at Kumatori. It's a shopping area. I went there once with some classmates to take purikura. I remember it specifically because the machine we used was like 100yen more than usual and the pictures were so crappy. XD


This was another thing I saw all the time in Higashi-Kishiwada.


I arrived at Asaka station, which is not only the station where my high school is located, but also the station closest to my last host family, who I was visiting.


Along the way I had to switch to the local train, which would be this. Bright blue and really flat. But a pretty blue at least? XD

I exited the station and saw my host mom's car parked a little ways away. She saw me and got out and ran to come see me. I forgot how tiny she is. XD We went back to her car and before going home, we drove to the school because I wanted to see it.



Sakai Joshi. The retarded school I went to all year long. D: It sucked, but even so, there were many memories to be had. I half wished it hadn't been closed so I could peek inside, but that's okay.


We headed back home. I walked down this street to go to school/back to the station.


The 99 Shop ♥♥♥ My favorite convenience store ever. They're cheaper than any other and they were always there for me when I needed a break from the onigiri my 2nd host mom gave me for lunch every single day. I kind of wanted to go in, but didn't get the chance. D: Oh well. It's not like I needed to go, just wanted to. I wish Tokyo had one of these. T___T

Anyway, one more picture of the path I walked.

This is a side street that goes toward the station.

When we got home, I greeted everyone, which was interesting, lol. Yuuki didn't have work that day, so he was home, and LOL holy cow, his hair is really long. That was insane. The grandma and grandfather are both still there and they don't seem any different, lol, but that's good because they're more alert than most of the older people here I think. The mom made lunch for us, which was delicious omelet rice, mmm. After we ate, we didn't really have anything to do, so the mom took me to the Aeon mall (which used to be Diamond City).



We looked through a couple of clothing shops before deciding to go to the Berry Cafe.



Okay, so this place is soooo awesome. You choose a slice of cake or tart out of their huge selection (see above picture) and then sit down with a cup of tea and eat it like a normal cafe. Their cakes and tarts are realllly good, but they're SO expensive. One slice is 600-700 yen, and the tea is about the same price. (Seriously? $6-$7 for a small pot of hot tea?) My eyes rolled to the back of my head when I saw the total for both of our slices + tea came out to be 2700 yen. It wasn't a cost for me since the mom never lets me pay for anything (I've tried, but she's kind of scary about it.), but man.


This was mine. It was kind of delicious.


This was my mom's. I'm pretty sure it was cheesecake on the bottom, but it was so small it was hard to be sure. I had a small bite and it was good too, but I liked mine more.

After we ate that, we walked around a bit more, checking out the cheaper clothing stores. They had a couple of shops that were much like Shimamura in both style and price; in fact, I'm pretty sure they carried the same stuff. I checked out their 3-piece sets since I've been planning to get one, and saw some that were cute, but not in my size. You'd think Japan would have smalls and mediums more than anything, but it was pretty much nothing but larges. D: The mom said there was another place that had stuff like that nearby, so she took me over there. I managed to find the set I liked the most in my size, so I got that. <3 I almost got a cute skirt, but decided not to when I saw that you could see my panties through it. D: It was such a cute skirt though!

But yeah, this mom was ALLLLLWAYS taking Miho and I to places. We ate out and shopped more than I did in all of my other families combined, seriously. It's crazy. I don't know how she affords it. The grandparents must have a lot of money or something, because their house is really big and new, and the mom doesn't work. It's a total mystery, but damn it must be nice, lol.

After that shopping trip, we went back home and went upstairs to chill. I met the dogs, and was surprised to see they have a 3rd dog now, Kuu. He's actually Keiji's dog, which yeah, apparently Miho and Keiji are actually still dating after all this time. That's amazing, and I was really happy about that, because it would be so weird if they weren't together.


Kuu is so cute! He is SO BIG though for a chihuahua! Not exactly with fat (though he is overweight), but everything about him is big. He looked more like a small terrier or something. He's a really good dog though - doesn't bark much and doesn't bite.


This is Lucky. He's SOOOO CUTE OMG. He's a western terrier. He barks a lot and has a habit of nipping at new people when they walk, but is so adorable. It's hard to be mad at him. His breath was really stinky though, ew.


Then there's Chobi. This dog is as old as dirt. Can you tell what kind of dog she is? Yeah no. She's a Maltese. She is 15-16 now, and I don't know how she's alive. She is extremely skinny. When I pet her, I felt nothing but bone under her thin fur. She's still pretty active though. She seems to see fairly well, and her hearing might be a little meh, but she walks around, barks, begs for food, you name it. She seemed to really like me this time. She used to run from me all the time, but she was always by me wanting me to pet her. She's so ugly and pitiful she's adorable. XD

We had nothing to do until Miho got home at 6:30, so we watched TV and lazed, and I took pictures of the dogs.


Kuu did this a lot. He's not stretching, he's just...sticking his butt up in the air, lol. xD He'll hold that pose for a long time.


lol Lucky barking at the TV.


Also, there was this picture on the wall. Apparently Miho does wheel chair dance now. O_o I honestly didn't even know that existed. The mom showed me a video of some of the dance she's done, and I have to say that it's not very interesting since they can't really do that much, but it looks like everyone is having fun, so it's neat that they have it.

Another dance photo.

Miho came home and I went down to see her. She was really had to look at me before seeing that it was me, lol. I definitely look different from 2004. We both chatted before we were all served dinner, which was fried shrimp and squid with a small salad and rice. My memory's a little foggy for around this time, but after dinner, Miho, the mom, and I went to a nearby grocery to get flowers for the grandparents' anniversary that was the next day. We also got some snacks and cocktails, which we drank and ate as we watched TV when we got back home.


Another dog picture with Miho's legs at the bottom. XD Just wanted a picture of the dog showing her body. She doesn't have a tail, and apparently never has. Man, she looks so old. I can't believe she's as active as she is.


My goodness is the mom weak to alcohol. She hardly drank half of her cocktail and she had to stop. I ended up drinking the rest of hers along with all of mine and I felt nothing.


Miho again with Chobi.

We didn't really do much for the rest of the night. Miho had to work, and the mom and I had to get up early, so we went to bed at a decent hour. I got to take a bath in their super spacious bathroom. Love their bathroom. The shower area is sooo spacious, and the bathtub is actually long enough to extend your legs. I know that sounds like nothing to you guys but being able to extend your legs in a bath here is a luxury.

I slept in Miho's room, which I actually used to do. This was the first night I got to sleep in a bed that I had actually slept in before, lol. XD



Uhhhmm Miho likes red, lol. The setup is actually different from how it was in 2004. The bed used to be in the middle of the room, but I think everything is pretty much the same.

At some point I also took pictures of the 2nd floor. It's a pretty comfy place aside from the constant smell of doggy poo, even though there wasn't any around. e_e


The living area vacant of people. It's so small but it's so cozy. The door in the back is a small bathroom.


The upstairs has a small kitchen area. This isn't the main kitchen, just an extra, small one. The house is set up like each floor is a separate home, which is basically how it is since the grandparents stay downstairs and everyone else is upstairs. The only time they really meet is for meal time.

Okay, so funny story time. Miho is still dating Keiji, one of two members of this vocal/guitar duo that has been going on since before I first came to Japan, and that in itself is amazing. But the duo, Akiyasumi have been getting more popular and are actually popular enough that they are too big to do street lives anymore. We used to go to almost every one of their street lives since they were in the area and as a result, they are a big part of my memory with this family, so I was glad that wasn't broken off. They recently had a live where they had 600-something fans in attendance, so that's like, awesome. I can't believe they've gone from the dinky street lives with no more than 20 people to a real show with over 600 people. They were even invited to play in an event last year (?) that Mr. Children and Yuzu also performed in (though they were on different stages, but still). So yeah, to my surprise, they're actually growing. With that said, they have been touring, and even go as far as Tokyo to perform, but this week they were in...Wakayama. My host mom said we could go if I was interested, and since I really wanted to see them again, I definitely wanted to go. She said they were performing in a city called Iwade. I was like, "...Iwade. Are you serious?" WHO THE HECK GOES TO IWADE FOR ANYTHING, MUCH LESS TO PERFORM?!! I was like "Where in Iwade?" and she said "In a store of some kind, not entirely sure." Turns out it was in friggen Millenia City, the same mall I was just in with Kimi and her family. LOL I couldn't believe it. That was so crazy.

This is what we woke up early for on Tuesday. They were doing 3 small performances (about 4-5 songs 3 different times), the first at 11AM, so we left around 9:15 for that.


Umm, I'm home?? LOL

We got to Millenia City a bit early and sat down in the area to wait. In the meantime, there was an event going on for Children's Day, and some mascots for I believe some baseball team were there to play rock-paper-scissors with the kids for snack prizes.


The left is a peach and the right is an umeboshi. I don't know what their names are though. I love the net on the peach. XD


Being mascots with mascot-y hands, they had to use these sticks to represent their choice between the rock, paper, and scissors.

Eventually that ended and we were then waiting for Akiyasumi.

They have this new logo and I think it's adorable.


Show time!


Tomoki


Keiji


LOL This is a great photo.

After the show, they had a table where they were selling their CDs and whatnot, and they would sign them. My host mom bought me their newest CD, which is a full-length album (wow!), because lol my mom pays for eeevvverything no matter what I do. I greeted them and got that signed along with the poster that went along with it, and shook their hands while thanking them. I shook Keiji's first, and it was...amusing. xD Because we have to pretend we don't have the connection through Miho and have to act like we don't really know each other. It was nice to see him again though. He remembered me of course, didn't have to ask my name before signing the CD with a "for Mera" before it. Then I shook Tomoki's and thanked him, and I'm honestly not sure if he remembered me LOL but he acted like he did nonetheless. After they finished signing, I got a couple of pictures with them.


Sporting the cute outfit I bought the other day. Keiji on the left and Tomoki on the right. I think the face size difference is hilarious. Everyone always comments about my face being tiny, and yeah, it's small (buying glasses was a frustrating experience), but I never thought it was THAT small in comparison. Okay I get it now, hahaha. God, Tomoki's face is HUGE.


I'm not really sure why, but my mom took another picture, and they switched from peace to a thumbs up, lol. O.o


This was sitting on their table, but this is a photo from their huge live with the 600 guests. So crazy.


Completely unrelated, but this little girl was there and she had like, mini creepers and I thought that was awesome, LOL.

We wanted to see the second performance, but since it didn't start until 2, we decided to get lunch at McDonald's with one of the fans, Toko, and her daughter Nana. They're both really adorable people. I wish I had a photo I could upload. We ate lunch and then went upstairs to take purikura to kill time. The entire time, Nana was too shy to say anything to me, but when we were writing on the purikura together, she opened up and was asking me stuff like "What's your sign?" since she was stamping the star signs on everyone's picture, and was asking a few things off and on. When the pictures printed, we went over to the counter where the scissors are and she looked at me and grinned and was like "Can you cut them pleae?" xD So cute. After the purikura, we went back downstairs to get seated again. There was still a lot of time left, but we just sat and waited. The peach and umeboshi were doing their thing again, and Nana went up to jankenpon with them.

When 2 rolled around, Akiyasumi did their thing again with the same songs. When that ended, my host mom and I chatted a little with them and headed out. Their last performance was at 4 and we needed to be home, so we weren't going to stay. It was good to get to seem them at all though. It was nice to have gotten to get a little bit of everything.

Before heading back home, we took advantage of us being in the same town as Kimi and dropped by her house real quick to pick up my face wash that I had accidentally left behind, LOL. Yay for strange convenience! From there we headed back home.



Okay, I want people to know what I'm talking about when I talk about Wakayama's tiny roads with ditches on the sides. I had to ride my bike from the house to the bus stop every day along these roads and came close to falling into the ditches when trying to dodge cars. I haven't seen this outside of Wakayama so it's apparently just a really rural thing. But seriously, what is wrong with grates?? And how in the world do two cars pass each other without falling off the road? I have no clue.


Anyway, we went back home.

When we got home, the mom and I watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix until Miho got home. When Miho got home, we went to Aeon mall to eat at Fuugetsu, which is by far the best okonomiyaki restaurant ever.


They are sooooo good. I don't know, no one makes it like they do. They do it right. Normally I'd be a bit opposed to eating it twice in a row, but since it was Fuugetsu I was like "Aww yeaaah"


This time I got the pork and shrimp. Mmmmm.


Took a picture of the mom when she wasn't aware since she kept putting the menu in front of her face when I tried to take a picture. Take that!


Tried to get a picture of Miho too, but she wasn't very keen on it either. Too bad. I love her fake angry faces. XD


And we're done.

After eating we went to the arcade so Miho and I could do purikura (did I get enough purikura taken during this trip? lol). The mom didn't participate with us.



I like this one a lot. XD

We went home afterward and I wanted to get family pictures before everyone went to bed since both Miho and Yuuki would be working the next day.


Mom, Miho, and Yuuki. Look at that hair, holy crap. XD They first tried to take a picture holding Kuu and Lucky, but they immediately started fighting over dominance and I couldn't take a picture because they were moving and I was laughing my butt off. They tried really hard to hold them still though, despite it. But in the end they had to put them down.


Then I switched places with the mom.


Kuu was being terrible cute, so I had to take a picture.

We ate cup ice cream and watched some TV while chatting. Miho was like "Man, why do you have to go back? Just stay here, we'll take you to Tokyo for school everyday," lol. XD I feel like it was easier to talk to Miho and everyone this time around since I've known them for a while and I hadn't just arrived at their house without a clue as to who they were and such like before, and I think Miho kind of felt the same way. It was kind of like we were picking up where things had left off, because things were different, but not THAT different. Time had passed but that was about it. I felt like I was supposed to stay there for the rest of my trip or something, lol, and when I remembered that I would be going back to Tokyo the next day, I felt really weird about it, like "Why am I leaving??" The mom told me later that the grandmother had said "It's too bad she [I] couldn't stay for one more day." That made me really happy since sometimes I'm honestly not entirely sure if everyone in the family likes me or not, and especially since the student they hosted after me, Poi, ended up having to change families because the grandmother didn't like her living with them and thus made me think she didn't like students being there. But she said she would have liked for me to have been able to stay for another day. :)

Nevertheless, I went to bed and woke up the next morning with my stuff packed and ready to go. My mom gave me a small breakfast since we were going to eat lunch soon. She made me katsudon for lunch since she had asked me what I liked a couple of days ago and katsudon was one of my answers. So we at that with the grandfather since the grandmother was out somewhere, and apparently he likes katsudon a lot too, so that worked out well. After we ate, I headed upstairs to finish getting ready, and we were off to Shin-Osaka. But before that, I found Lucky sleeping on the couch and it cracked me up, so I grabbed my camera real quick.



LOL That dog is too cute.

We headed out to Shin-Osaka, since my host mom was nice enough to drive me all the way there. I had no idea the station was so big.




We pulled up in front of the station and I got out. Since the traffic was heavy, my mom was only able to help me get my stuff out and give me a hug before she had to skidaddle.

I headed inside and searched through the souvenir shops for mitarashi dango to bring home for my current host family. I had asked my 4th mom what would be a good gift from Osaka, and she recommended that, and it sounded good, so I wanted to get that. I found a package what had the bunny features carved onto the dumplings, and that was cheaper (and cuter) than the regular, so I went with that. From there I bought my train ticket and went up to the platforms. Trains bound for Tokyo are much more frequent than stuff going to Osaka from Tokyo, so I was quickly able to board and get a window seat. The ride back was thankfully quiet and no one tried to talk to me, lol. I wasn't tired though, and stayed awake the whole time again. I took one picture when we went into Kyoto.


Stupid rain.

I arrived at Tokyo station around 4:30-ish probably and headed back to Omiya. I got home around 5:15 or so and had my host mom pick me up since I had a lot of heavy baggage and it was raining. I got home and that was pretty much the end of the trip.

END.